Garbage was once the perfect band.
Not in the sense that its music projected a superior aura or that its first two albums were impeccable. No, the very composition of the band generated its perfection.
On Garbage's eponymous debut, Shirley Manson took the microphone with a nihilistic snarl, singing with empowerment and sexual braggadocio as seduction dripped from her every word. But she didn't want you - she wanted to break you down.
Aged but stylishly hip journeymen, Manson's other bandmates - especially producer and drummer Butch Vig - blended into the background as they created a ceaselessly constructed wall of sound from playfully ragged guitar riffs, driving drum loops and gaudy hooks. They drowned listeners in a sea of meticulously arranged gothic power pop but hid behind the raw face of Manson. "Don't look behind the curtain!" they declared in silence, "Keep your eyes on the supervixen."
Garbage greatness thus derived from its ability to deceive. You were meant to believe the band relied only on the charisma of Manson, but in reality it equally drew from Vig's ability to create pop music veiled in gothic grunge and pulsing electronica. It was a two-headed monster that tried to play itself off as merely a pit bull.
The result took pressure off Vig and allowed him to create compositions on Garbage's follow-up "Version 2.0" that subtly combined new wave and more jagged guitars with its usual ear candy. Meanwhile, all attention was focused on Manson, who grew fiercer and more fearless in her intensity.
But what happens when the curtain is pulled down? The answer lies on Garbage's latest endeavor, "Beautifulgarbage," an album that puts Vig and company on center stage because of a mostly tepid, frustrated Manson.
Typically the energetic masthead of the group, Manson is burdened with a schizophrenic state of mind that shifts between calmness, anger, loneliness and even brokenness. On "Silence is Golden," Manson questions an incident of sexual abuse but struggles to find a response, finally ending not in resolution but in deeper confusion. "My body's a temple/But nothing is simple/Silence is golden/I have been broken/Something was stolen," she sings as the band echoes her frustration by alternating between a tense, throbbing accompaniment and abrasive guitar explosions.
Manson's subdued presence calls for Vig to elevate his, meeting her timidity with musical vigor and ambitious arrangements. His response defines the album. Instead of honing the art of grunge pop that first defined the band, Vig goes the opposite direction and delves into a scattered range of musical styles that create an overly eclectic, unbalanced album.
|
The album's opener "Shut Your Mouth," a whining tirade against critics accompanied by a similarly asinine '80s distorted guitar, christens the album bitterly. The following R&B-influenced "Androgyny" vainly recycles the stale theme of sexual confusion that was shocking a mere 15 years ago when the Replacements first addressed it. On "Can't Cry These," Vig drenches Manson's tale of woe with romantic 1950s girl-group harmonies. Already within the first three songs, Vig strives for grandiose production but falters through his inconsistency and inability to enhance the songs' themes.
Not until "Cup of Coffee," a wrenchingly personal ballad with haunting trip-hop production and synthy strings, does "Beautifulgarbage" take off. "And no of course we can't be friends/Not while I'm still this obsessed/I want to ask where I went wrong/But don't say anything at all," Manson sings with resignation. Amongst the rubble of failed bombastic musical experimentation, Garbage creates its most potent tracks ("Nobody Loves You," "So Like a Rose") when it stresses a pristine simplicity.
"Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" successfully returns to the new wave influenced power pop that highlighted "Version 2.0," but the song's campy bell chimes and Manson's artificially sweet voice are disappointingly toothless.
The spark has been temporarily removed from Garbage. Without the dominating dynamism of Manson, Vig has overcompensated by attempting to give the band forced new sounds. Unfortunately, on "Beautifulgarbage" Vig can be heard desperately scattering to find them. Do not doubt that Vig will rediscover his niche and Manson will fall back into her fiery persona - because when they do they'll regain their lost perfection.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
